Officials hunt for way to keep herd healthy | Mansfield News Journal

By KRISTINA SMITH HORN

The spread of a deadly brain disease could threaten Ohio’s deer population and the revenue the state receives from hunters.

Chronic Wasting Disease, an illness among deer and elk that causes the brain to deteriorate, has been found in Midwestern states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. So far, Ohio has been successful in keeping the disease out of its deer herd.

“People come from all over the country to hunt our prized deer,” said Larry Mitchell, president of the League of Ohio Sportsmen. “Our big concern is CWD coming into the state.”

That’s why state Sen. Bob Gibbs, R-Lakeville, and Rep. Mark Okey, D-Carrollton, have proposed bills to have businesses that keep commercial deer apply for a permit and be subject to fencing requirements and other control measures.

The concern is that deer in breeding facilities and preserves — where operators buy trophy-sized deer from around the country and people pay to hunt them — could become infected, get loose and infect the native deer population. Chronic Wasting Disease can spread through feces, urine and saliva and by animal-to-animal contact.

The bills also would give the Ohio Department of Agriculture sole authority to regulate commercial deer. That’s where the controversy comes in.

Who controls the deer?

In a memo last month, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources opposed the bills because the agency wants to retain oversight of the deer population.

ODNR has regulated hunting preserves — most of which are in central and southern Ohio — since 1953 and deer breeders since 1994, according to the memo. The Department of Agriculture has authority over health issues and already regulates sale of captive deer across state lines, said Jim Lehman, Division of Wildlife law enforcement administrator.

“We want to make sure that we maintain authority over those animals,” Lehman said. “(CWD) is not easy to fix once you’re dealing with it. It’s much easier to prevent it.”

The League of Ohio Sportsmen encourages hunters to call legislators to speak out against the bills.

“Without the Division of Wildlife’s authority, it could get out of hand,” Mitchell said. “If there was a problem with a herd inside a place, the Division of Wildlife would have no control over anything. The department of agriculture does not have the manpower to do this.”

ODNR and the agriculture department are working together to reach a balance on the issue, Lehman said. Gibbs said he and Okey want that balance. Gibbs feels the sportsmen’s opposition is misguided and premature.

“We’re both hunters, and we’re both sportsmen, and we want to protect the deer herd,” he said. “Unfortunately, the ODNR has the sportsmen all riled up. We can sit down and work this out.

“We’re not going to pass a bill that sportsmen aren’t going to be comfortable with.”

Gibbs said he proposed the bill because operators of hunting preserves in his district — including Holmes County, which has four preserves — asked for regulations. Okey did not return a message seeking comment.

“There’s no framework about what the regulations are now,” Gibbs said. “They want a structure in place. I’ve toured the farms, and they’re pretty impressive.

“If something happens, they want to make sure they work with the Ohio Department of Agriculture.”

Sen. Mark Wagoner, R-Ottawa Hills, who represents Ottawa County and is co-sponsoring the Senate bill, said his understanding is the bill would help the state better regulate deer sold as livestock. ODNR would retain oversight of the native deer herd, he said.

“It’s a bill that makes sense and should be at least considered,” he said.

The agriculture department monitors domestic deer that are sold across state lines, said Robert Boggs, Ohio Department of Agriculture director.

The department oversees shipping, making sure shipments match the manifest, Boggs said.

“We just keep them honest,” he said. “You don’t get three strikes and you’re out. You’re out on the first strike.”

A captive deer must go through five years of inspections before being considered disease-free, he said. If farms don’t have that certification, they can’t market their animals.

His agency and ODNR work together, he said. The agriculture department tests for diseases among the animals, and ODNR uses its 137 wildlife officers to monitor deer across the state.

“They’re very important in enforcement in keeping us informed in other parts of the state,” Boggs said. “We have no problem with them, and they have no problem with us.”

Since July 2007, ODNR’s wildlife officers have conducted 395 inspections of deer-holding facilities. They documented 41 issues or problems and filed 16 charges, including conspiracy and interstate transportation of non-certified deer.

“The Division of Wildlife, with its significant numbers of well-trained law enforcement officers, is uniquely suited to dealing with laws and rules dealing with captive (deer),” according to the ODNR memo.

Gibbs, however, said wildlife officers’ visits to the preserves have been sporadic. He thinks more stringent oversight would be beneficial.

His and Okey’s bills propose to have breeders and operators of hunting preserves apply for a permit to keep commercial deer — which would come with a $300 fee. If approved, they would be subject to state regulations.

“If you don’t want to be involved with it, you stay the same,” he said. “This is voluntary.”

Regulations including criteria for fencing, records of all deer kept, sold and killed on the property and tissue samples of 10 percent of the operation’s deer, according to the bill.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture works with deer farmers more than ODNR does, Gibbs said.

“We do have interest in the bill, but only the disease portion,” Boggs said.

Boggs commended Okey for moving to take more precautions against Chronic Wasting Disease.

“It’s something we think will move us much further on in terms of the disease,” he said.

mkhorn@gannett.com

via Officials hunt for way to keep herd healthy | mansfieldnewsjournal.com | Mansfield News Journal.

Judge upholds Michigan’s ban on deer baiting, feeding to battle chronic wasting disease – Michigan News, Updates, Photos & Video | Detroit, Lansing – MLive.com

Judge upholds Michigan’s ban on deer baiting, feeding to battle chronic wasting disease

by The Associated Press

Thursday October 09, 2008, 6:59 PM

LANSING — A judge Thursday let stand a ban on feeding and baiting deer in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, ruling the state had authority to issue the emergency rule after its first case of chronic wasting disease was detected.

The decision was a blow for farmers and store owners who sued because they’re being hurt financially by the ban. Hunters place piles of bait — beets, carrots, corn, apples and other produce — in areas to attract deer.

After hearing arguments, Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk acknowledged that a number of people earn a living by growing and selling the bait. But she said the Michigan Department of Natural Resources based its decision on “sound scientific management principles.”

“It did it for the purpose of preserving deer and elk herd so that those who make their living from it may continue to do so in the future,” Draganchuk said of the ban imposed Aug. 26. It’s effective for six months and could be extended.

State attorneys defended the policy as a necessary precaution to prevent the spread of the disease.  Full Story

Judge upholds Michigan’s ban on deer baiting, feeding to battle chronic wasting disease – Michigan News, Updates, Photos & Video | Detroit, Lansing – MLive.com.

Deer bait ban piles up money problems | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Bid to curb disease hits farmers, vendors

BY MARGARITA BAUZA • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Farmers and vendors who provide deer bait are facing a major financial hit this hunting season because of a ban on using bait to hunt.

Hunters caught using carrots, sugar beets and other vegetables for bait face up to $500 in fines and 90 days in jail if convicted. The state enacted the ban after a deer infected with chronic wasting disease was found in a contained pen in Kent County.

The disease is contagious and has been found in other states, which have enacted bans similar to Michigan’s.

In Michigan, the deer feed industry is believed to be as high as $100 million a year and a ban will hurt farmers, gas stations and roadside operations that sell bait as well as manufacturers of deer feed, said attorney Ed McNeely, who filed a lawsuit against the state to lift the ban.

Mike Van Den Bosch, a manager at John A. Van Den Bosch, a wholesaler for deer feed and scientifically engineered deer attractants in Holland, says the company’s inventory is backing up by the truckloads.

“Lots of orders have been canceled,” Van Den Bosch said. “We have accounts all over the Lower and Upper Peninsula. Customers are afraid. Even though it’s still legal to sell it, everything’s stopped. It’s going to cost millions of dollars of losses in Michigan.”

His company will lose $750,000, he said.

“It happened at the worst possible time,” he added. “And we’re just one business. There are many small independent guys that need this money to help them through winter months.”

Chad Stearns, manager at Jay’s Sporting Goods in Clare, said its two stores will continue selling bait despite the ban. Retailers are allowed to sell bait but hunters are banned from using it.

“We have de-emphasized marketing it,” said Stearns, speaking of products it sells such as corn, apples, sugar beets and supplements like Acorn Rage and C’Mere Deer. “We’ve moved it to the back but we still have it available.”

Tony Wright, owner of the Wright Stuff in Emmet, near Port Huron, which sells carrots, apples, sugar beets, corn and sweet corn for deer, said bait represents about 70% of his business.  Full Story

Deer bait ban piles up money problems | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press.

Deer bait to have its day in court – Ludington Daily News

Brian Mulherin – Daily News Staff Writer

A petition was filed in Lansing Circuit Court seeking to have the DNR’s ban on baiting and feeding deer overturned Tuesday. The ban was issued by Department of Natural Resources Director Rebecca Humphries August 28 after one deer was found to have chronic wasting disease at a captive deer operation in Kent County. The DNR has stated that baiting and feeding can concentrate deer and cause diseases like CWD to spread more rapidly. The petition and a motion for an expedited hearing were filed by attorneys Edward J. McNeely III and Matthew Malleis of Grand Rapids. The case is expected to be heard by Judge Joyce Draganchuck.

Among the petitioners is farmer Gerald Malburg of Oceana County, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, a store owner and hunters.

Malburg grows fodder beets and carrots on his Oceana farm and has said that the beets he planted this spring are specifically grown for deer feed and are not a type that could easily be sold to livestock farms. He also estimated about 46 percent of his carrots are “cull” carrots unsuitable for his primary market of restaurants. Malburg told the Daily News his carrots have no other market than deer feed or bait. The petition states he stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the order.

The DNR’s interim order prohibiting the baiting and feeding Full Story

Ludington Daily News – News.

CWD debate rages | battlecreekenquirer.com | The Enquirer

Darren Warner

From farmers to hunters to even politicians, people all over the state are upset over the recent ban on deer baiting.

In response to the discovery of the state’s first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a white-tailed deer from a privately owned cervid (POC) facility in Kent County in August, the Michigan Departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture implemented an immediate ban on all baiting and feeding of deer and elk in the Lower Peninsula.

People who depend on baiting for various reasons connected to hunting and apart from hunting, oppose the ban.

“I was surprised at the position of the DNR, based on the fact that a ban on baiting has had no effect on CWD in other states such as Wisconsin and Colorado,” said State Representative Joel Sheltrown (D-West Branch).

Sheltrown, chairman of the Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee, recommends another strategy.

“I have called for a more balanced approach that would lift the ban until Jan. 1, 2009. By then, we will have collected more testing data on other deer and it would allow farmers to recoup their economic losses,” Sheltrown said.

Hunter and rock star Ted Nugent agrees. “I am opposed to the ban because there’s no scientific evidence to support it. There is no link between feeding deer and CWD – unless the feed contains animal parts from an infected animal. Bureaucrats are spitting in the face of the very ideals they swore to uphold: that they would make decisions based on sound scientific evidence.  Full Story

CWD debate rages | battlecreekenquirer.com | The Enquirer.

Michigan Legislators Issue Recommendation on CWD Baiting Ban- Ludington Daily News

Committee chairs call for lifting the peninsula wide ban

Brian Mulherin – Daily News Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

LANSING ? Three Michigan legislators who chair key committees have sponsored similar resolutions in the Michigan House and Senate urging the director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to lift the ban on baiting ordered in response to Chronic Wasting Disease. The resolutions also recommend the Natural Resources Commission hold public hearing on the general issue of baiting for future hunting seasons.

Chair of the Senate Hunting, Fishing and Outdoor Recreation Committee, State Senator James Barcia (D-Bay City) indicated that all legislators he has spoken with about the baiting ban believe the ban goes too far, too soon. “It does not make sense to ban baiting in the entire Lower Peninsula this year due to the finding of CWD in one deer at one enclosed facility,” Barcia said. “We must remain vigilant without over-reacting in a manner that will do more harm than good.”

Following the discovery of a three-year old white tail deer found at a ranch in Kent County, all the other deer at the same ranch have tested negative for CWD. In addition, an epidemiological study performed by state veterinarians has not turned up CWD in any other captive or free-ranging Michigan deer. State officials do not know how the deer at the Kent County facility became infected with CWD Full Story

Ludington Daily News – News.

The Journal Times Online: Give DNR’s new rifle rule a chance

By Journal Times Editorial Board

Sunday, September 14, 2008 4:52 PM CDT

Just in time for the fall hunting season, word got around that the state Department of Natural Resources was authorizing the use of rifles, not just shotguns, for deer hunting in some high-density population areas in the state, including Racine County west of the Interstate.

Predictably, that raised some eyebrows, hackles and fears, all in one swift motion.

And some, of course, went right to blaming the DNR for slipping the rule change in quietly without letting people know.

Let’s take a deep breath now.

Yes, the rule change will allow use of rifles which have a range of two or three miles, and that is much greater than a shotgun slug which has an effective range measured at 150 yards or so, according to news reports. Some argue that could pose a danger in a high-population area.

But the fact is, too, that much deer hunting is done from elevated stands, so the rifle bullet is usually aimed downward, and misses bore into the ground and are not headed over the hill toward the local coffee shop or convenience store along the highway. And, at least according to DNR officials, the chronic wasting disease zone south of Dane County where the state has allowed rifles in recent yea

The Journal Times Online > Opinion > Give DNR’s new rifle rule a chance.

DNR Outlines Special Hunting Regulations for Townships in Kent County; Changes to Wildlife Rehabilitation Also Ordered

Contact: Mary Dettloff 517-335-3014
Agency: Natural Resources

The Department of Natural Resources today outlined special deer hunting regulations for the nine townships in the Chronic Wasting Disease surveillance zone in Kent County that will be in place for the fall deer hunting season. Changes also will be made to regulations regarding possession of live cervids, including for wildlife rehabilitation.

These changes are part of the state’s emergency response plan for CWD. On Monday, Aug. 25, the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa confirmed CWD in a deer from a privately owned facility in Kent County.

Under the special hunting regulations, only boned meat, capes and antlers of hunter-harvested deer may be removed from the CWD surveillance zone, which includes Tyrone, Solon, Nelson, Sparta, Algoma, Courtland, Alpine, Plainfield and Cannon townships.

Hunters harvesting wild, free-ranging deer in the surveillance zone shall not remove the carcass or parts of the carcass from the CWD surveillance zone, except for boned meat, antlers attached to a skull cap cleaned of all brain and muscle tissue, and hides. Finished taxidermist mounts also may be removed from the CWD surveillance zone.

The entire carcasses of all hunter-harvested deer from the CWD surveillance zone shall be presented at a DNR check deer check station within 72 hours of harvest. Additional check stations will be established in the surveillance zone to make it more convenient for hunters in the zone. Those locations will be announced prior to the early antlerless hunt on private land scheduled to take place Sept. 18-22 southern Michigan.

At the check stations, DNR staff will remove the deer head and a portion of the neck. During regular deer hunting seasons this fall,hunters may retain the antlers after they have turned over the head at the check station. Hunters outside the surveillance zone in Kent County will be able to retain the carcass as well. Hunters inside the surveillance zone cannot remove the carcass from the zone.

Additionally, the DNR will issue a new wildlife order that will make changes that impact wildlife rehabilitation in Michigan. Under the emergency orders, the possession and transport of any live cervids, including for wildlife rehabilitation, will be prohibited. Cervids include white-tailed deer, elk and moose. All privately owned cervid facilities in the state are already quarantined, meaning no cervids alive or dead may be removed from the facilities.

These regulation changes will be in effect starting Friday, Aug. 29, when DNR Director Rebecca Humphries signs the emergency wildlife orders that outline these special regulations.

The wildlife orders and more information about CWD and the surveillance zone in Kent County are available on the DNR Web site at www.michigan.gov/dnr.

The DNR is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state’s natural resources
for current and future generations.

Deer Farm Industry in Michigan Issues Statement on the Recent Chronic Wasting Disease Case Identified on a Kent County Deer Farm

HILLMAN, Mich., Aug. 29 — In response to recent news about Michigan’s first identified case of chronic wasting disease (CWD), members of the deer farming community have issued the following statement.

With hunting season fast approaching, the tragic incident regarding a CWD positive test for a deer on a Kent County farm understandably has created concern among hunters, outdoor enthusiasts and deer farmers across the great state of Michigan. The deer farming industry in Michigan is committed to preventing the spread of chronic wasting disease and is cooperating fully with both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources to bring a swift and conclusive resolution to this difficult situation.

Michigan’s protocols to handle a chronic wasting disease case are working the way our industry, DNR, and MDA originally conceived them. It should also be noted the farm in question was fully complying with mandatory state regulatory requirements issued by MDA, which is why we remain hopeful that a thorough investigation will reveal this case to be an isolated incident.

The deer farming industry and state officials in Michigan have taken the issue of chronic wasting disease seriously, long before this incident ever occurred. In fact, it is because of our united commitment to testing that this case was even identified in the first place. The Cervid Farmers of Michigan, Michigan Deer and Elk Breeders Association, North American Deer Farmers Association, along with regulatory state agencies continuously work together to make sure deer farms and wildlife in Michigan are CWD free. The recent incident only serves to reaffirm our resolve to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease.

With more than 600 deer farms under quarantine right now, the entire industry is at a standstill. Deer farming, as a regulated alternative livestock industry is a $1 billion industry in Michigan and it is a vital part of the state’s agriculture community.

Every dollar the local agriculture community produces gets used 2.6 times before it leaves those local communities, according to research by the Michigan State University Agriculture Economics Department. This means the $104 million locally-based agriculture industry has an economic impact of $270 million annually for local communities in Michigan. A damaged deer farming industry will have negative repercussions on the state’s agriculture community and the economy as a whole because the longer Michigan’s deer farms are shut down — the greater the financial impact there will be for local communities.

We as an industry are continuing to be cooperative and helpful to ensure this incident did not spread outside our state and federally regulated and secured properties. The deer farming industry is committed to assisting in any way possible to find the cause for the chronic wasting disease case in Kent County, but the industry is asking for a swift resolution to this issue and the lifting of the quarantine on those farms with no connection to the affected farm.

SOURCE North American Deer Farmers Association; Cervid Farmers of Michigan;

Michigan Deer & Elk Breeders Association